British actor Nigel Lindsay played the title role in the original production of Shrek The Musical which opened at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 14 June 2011. He finished in February 2012, earning nominations for both the Laurence Olivier and Whatsonstage Awards for Best Actor in a Musical.

The previous year he won the latter for Best Supporting Actor as Dr Harry Hyman in Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass at the Tricylcle Theatre in London.

To play the grumpy Socttish ogre Shrek, Nigel had to spend 90 minutes before each performance having a prosthetic make up applied. There was also a touch of the Time Lord in his voice – he asked his mate David Tennant to help him out with this delivery  – a cross between Kenny Dalglish and the former Dr Who. David said if he did Kenny no one would understand him, Nigel responded that, “yeah, but you’re too fey” so David ‘butched’ it up for him.

Nigel’s currently playing Charlie Fox in David Mamet’s Speed the Plow at London’s The Playhouse where he signed my sketch last night.